"SOUTH ISLAND HYSTERIA."

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17814, 13 July 1923, Page 6

"SOUTH ISLAND HYSTERIA."

REPLY TO NORTHERN COMMENT.

"The South Island Motor Associations have worked themselves up into a state of hysteria on the Highways Bill, and appear to be under the impression that the North Island is populated solely by bandits intent on robbing the honest citizens of the South (writes "Spotlight," in the "Dominion," Wellington). "North Island motorists arc certainly opposed to further monkeying about with highways legislation. It has taken many weary years to get an Act on the Statute Book, and if the whole thing is to be thrown into the melting-pot again the prospect of road improvement on a national basis will recede into the distant future. The South Island has a big mileage of gravel roads, on the whole in good condition in consequence of the relatively light traffic in that island. The South has many more miles of raili way also than it is able to provide I traffic for. In view of these facts it lis not surprising that Southern inI terest in highways improvement is i small compared with that of the Nortii Island, where better roads are so urgently noeded in many parts. To gain its point on the Highways Act the South Island Motor Associations are apparently prepared to risk wrecking the whole measure, in which their interest appears to be of the mildest description. "As for their fears of being bled to 1 support the North Island, there is very little in it. Their nominee for the . Highways Board, Mr J. S. Hawkes, was passed over, they are piqued in consequence, and are out to raise a dust about it. The Canterbury A.A. has been taking the lead in the matter, and has doubtless inspired the little, shoal of resolutions which have been passed by South Island motoring and other bodies, and have duly been published in the Press. The mainspring of the Canterbury A.A. is its very capable and energetic organiser, who is no other than Mr J. S. Hawkes him self. It is a pity there are not more enthusiasts like Mr Hawkes connected with the motoring movement, but 'Spotlight' has his doubts whether the South Island is really at a whiteheat of indignation because Mr Wynyard, of Auckland, , was chosen as the motorists' representative on the Highways Board. " 'Spotlight' has not seen the figures, but he hears that the district registrations through the Dominion show an overwhelming preponderance of motor vehicles in the North Island as compared with the South—considerably greater than the 60 to 40 proportion previously mentioned. So far from the South Island motor revenue being drawn upon for expenditure in .the North Island, the opposite would be more likely to be the case. If we could be sure that parish pump interests would not rip the Highways Act to pieces once it was flung into Parliament again, it would be. all to the advantage of the North Island to have the South Island put in a water-tight compartment of its own. Unfortunately, that is exactly what wo cannot be sure about. "In the circumstances, it is a pity that the South cannot restrain its bellowing until it is hurt, and at least give the members of the Highways Board credit for being honest men bent on doing their duty by the country as a whole. If the South Island motorists will extend their tours across Cook Strait they will find that the decent human beings much like themselves, and not the home of a gang of piratical rascals who live by robbing the poor-boxes in the churches. The whole measure is an experiment, and | the obvious and sensible course is to j let the Highways Board get on its feet and then make such amendments in the Act as are proved necessary by I experience, which is likely to. bo a far sounder guide than the fantastical imaginings our South Island .friends would make a substitute for it." Very critical of the South Island attitude towaids the main highways question is our Northern friend light," but woefully inaccurate. His denunication of the protest which has come from all tho motoring bodies in the South as mere "hysteria," is not, to say the least of it, very convincing, and his undignified reference to the South Island "bellowing" before it is hurt, should be ■ sufficient to prevent anyone taking the whole article seriously. There is one insinuation in the article which should, however, not he allowed to pass without protest, and that is tho insinuation—it almost amounts to a statement—that the protest from the South has be:n engineered by Mr J. S. Hawkes, official organiser of the Canterbury Automobile Association and president of the South Isiandl Motor Union. "Roadster" knows something of the South Island Motor Union and its widespread organisation, and he took an opportunity which presented itself to show the article quoted above to Mr J. S. Hawkes, Mr P. R, Harman (secretary of the Motor Union), and Mr H. Halliday (president of the Otago Motor Club). Since his nomination for a seat on the Highways Board, Mr Hawkes has said very little about the South Island's rights in tho matter of representation, in case, probably, some ungenerous critic might accuse; him of advancing his own interests in the matter. If3lr Hawl-es's suitability as a member of the BAard has been strossed in any measureX by tho South Island, it has "been donoVby tho eleven motoring organisations \in the island on their behalf, and frojmi their own knowledge of his valuable scirices to motoring. Any suggestion that he "canvassed" for nomination — and "Roadster" has never previously heard of one—would, irresprctive of the -injustice to himself, be a slight upon the progressive men who control tho affairs of organised motoring in every province from Nelson to Inveroargili. Motor Union Officials' Reply. Mr Halliday, in discussing "Spotlight's" article, said that the South Island Motor Union was asking for just plain representation on the Board. They were paying the tax and had a right to representation, but they wera certainly not going to get representation as the Board was at present constituted. Our roads were in a comparatively good state of repair, he said, and the money spent here would, under tho highways scheme, go three times as far as it would in the North Island. There could be only one reason why the North should object to the South having its own Board—the Northerners did not want the South to spend its own money on its own roads. From an economy standpoint alone, the two-Board

(Continued at foot of naaVcoluawJ

system sholud be more Acceptable to the Government. If there was a Board in each island, and each eomnoscd >of four members, administration' "expenses would be less, for it would l cost less, for each Board to travel over its own territory than for one largo Board of seven members te travel over the wholes of the Dominion. '"Wo gnve way on the question of tho numerical strength of tho Board," said Mr Halliday. "We agreed, for economy's sake to modify our proposal, so that the Board should comprise four members instead of six. Then tho Legislative Council proposed two County Council representatives, and tho Government put on another man to balance things up. and trie strength of tho Board became seven. The Minister has not kept faith with us, there is no doubt about that. Aa to the question of Mr Wvnyard being appointed in preference to"Mr Hawkcs, the personal element does not come into our protest at nil. We are protesting against the appointment of a North Island muring representative in preference to-* South Island representative, m the face of the evidence webrought to show that our Union represent* a larger body of organised motorUnion S the *° rth Ma^ Mr Hawlces said that he was reluctant to speak on the matter. He was IS t&SFt accept ing the seat. It was not a uereonal t£ Wi, i P, nnc was all wrong, ino South Island, with its ereater mnl aa to the number of cara reeistered in each island No man living Kv ß how many cars there eve i n nlw Zedand Anything saxd about the number of